Pain
by lukeandlor383
Summary: Published initially almost three years ago to the date, now completely rewritten. First chapter posted, second rewritten chapter to come soon! R&R!
1. Teaser REWRITE 122109

**Chapter One: Teaser (REVAMPED, and REWRITTEN as of 12/21/09)**

**FULL summary: Post partings. April and Anna have endured a horrific accident. Both are in serious, unstable conditions. Luke needs someone. With Liz and TJ making the rounds with the renaissance circuit he is left with no one. Lorelai, who in my alternate universe did NOT sleep with Christopher, is still extraordinarily emotionally unstable since the split. She, too, needs someone by her side. Can pain bring our favorite couple back together once and for all?**

**Title: Pain**

**Rating: PG-ish**

**Glitches: Chris? Who's that? Oh, no he's no in this. This is a no Chris zone. Always.**

**Disclaimer: I claim nothing, sadly. **

**---**

Luke sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair, looking down, eyes closed tight, replaying a conversation in his head. He couldn't believe it.

_He was closing up the diner for the night, putting chairs on the tables, making sure everything was in it's place for the following morning. He'd become so robotic since Lorelai left him, he didn't have something to look forward to each day. Nothing, except his daughter April. She seemed to brighten the days which would otherwise seem dark and depressing. _

_Suddenly, the loud sound of the diner's landline ringing broke Luke from his thoughts. _

"_Hello?" He answered, unsure of who would be calling the diner at this hour. He checked his watch, it read 10:30._

"_Is this Luke Danes?" A serious man with a deep tone asked him. _

"_Uh, yeah this is Luke Danes. Can I help you?"_

"_Mr. Danes, this is Dr. Shultz from Woodbridge Memorial Hospital, if I'm to be correct your daughter is April Nardini?" _

"_Yes, is something wrong?" Panic took Luke over, even though he hadn't known he'd been a father for long, the instincts kicked in full power, almost instantly. He knew something wasn't right. _

"_Unfortunately, Mr. Danes, April and her mother Anna were in a car accident earlier this evening. I can't release too much information over the phone, but—" _

"_No, that's fine. I'll be right there." _

"_Okay, Mr. Danes. I'll speak with you soon." _

"_Yeah," He quickly hung up the phone and ran upstairs for his keys and his jacket. In less than two minutes, he was in his truck en route to the hospital. _

Nearly two hours had passed since that telephone conversation with the doctor, and since then he'd spoken with that same doctor on six different occasions. Every so often something new would come up. Anna had been in surgery for nearly an hour, they'd deduced that there was little they could do for April given her current state. All he could do now was wait. Thoughts whirled around Luke's jumbled head. The last three days had been a complete nightmare for him, one tragedy to the next. He'd lost his fiancée, and now faced losing his daughter and his former flame. He began to blame himself. There had to be something he could do to rectify everything. His thoughts drifted further, and further until they reached the same place they'd gone every other time he had an extended period of time by himself. Lorelai.

Despite all that was happening around him, to him, concerning him, he could not seem to pry his thoughts away from his lost love. He refused to come to terms with the fact that he no longer had the love of his life, the yin to his yang and every other cliché imaginable, Lorelai Gilmore. She was perfect for him, and he let it all slip away.

"Mr. Danes," a nurse called to him.

"Yes?" He looked up, shaking thoughts of Lorelai temporarily from his head.

"I'm afraid there's nothing else we can do tonight, you may want to go home and get some rest. We can call you if anything changes."

"Oh, alright. Thank you." The nurse gave him a polite smile and a sympathetic nod before turning on her heels and walking off.

_Maybe, if I called her..._ He thought. _No, no. She wouldn't take the call._ Luke stood up, and pulled himself together. He knew instantly what he was doing. He walked to his truck, got in, and drove back to Stars Hollow. Back _home._

--

Lorelai Gilmore hadn't been doing particularly well over the last three days. Leaving Luke was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. Harder than living under Emily Gilmore's roof for seventeen years, even. At this point, she could barely move. She was barren of emotion, too. She couldn't laugh, or smile, or even cry anymore. She was too emotionally drained to cry, or whimper or speak. Rory, though worried about her, knew there was nothing she could do but wait it out. The time would come when Lorelai realized she needed to get up, and get moving. Everyone hoped that moment would come sooner rather than later.

As she lay on her couch, motionless, expressionless, she stared at the ceiling. She scarcely blinked in fear of her gaze dropping to something that reminded her of Luke. Everything reminded her of Luke. So, staring at the ceiling seemed to be her best bet.

Her thoughts, or lack thereof, were then interrupted by a loud, obnoxious banging on the door. For a moment she contemplated ignoring it, but she knew that would further evoke cries of worry from everyone around her. She got up slowly from the couch, lifting the mountain of blankets off of her and trudged to the door.

She opened the door and stared intently at the figure before her, "Hi." She whispered, barely audible.

"Hi," the familiar, deep voice echoed.

**-------**

**That's a little more lengthy than the original first chapter. & I hope you enjoyed the rewrite! **

**Second chapter to come, ASAP!**


	2. Beginning, Middle, & End REWRITE 122209

**Chapter Two: The Beginning, Middle, and End. REWRITE! 12/21/09**

**As always, extremely out of character. Oh well, that's why its' called a fan fiction. (: **

**--**

The last person Lorelai expected to open the door to that evening, was Luke Danes. Though she would never admit it, she knew he was the only person she'd wanted there.

"What," she cleared her throat, "what are you doing here, Luke?"

"I.. I don't know. I just, I needed someone to—"

"Luke don't."

"April and Anna were in a car accident. I need somebody Lorelai." They made eye contact, and held it for a moment. Lorelai could almost feel the hurt in his eyes. That strong man seemed so helpless standing before her.

"Do... do you want to come inside?" She step aside and allowed room for Luke to pass through the doorway.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Absolutely," They walked to the couch, awkwardly and sat down. A silence engulfed the room, again. "So, um, what happened?" Lorelai asked, her voice hoarse from her three days of silence.

"I don't know exactly, the nurse said they were hit head on by a drunk driver and the airbags were defective or something. Neither the car that hit them, or their car were going very fast, so it's better than it could have been, but the outlook is still not looking so great." He shifted, uneasily on the couch. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Neither Luke nor Lorelai were sure how long they could last in these conditions.

"Luke, I'm so sorry. Are they going to be okay?"

"No one seems to know. None of the doctors have straight answers, the nurses seem to have no clue what's going on. I understand, there are more patients in the hospital to worry about but... that's my daughter, Lorelai. I need to know if she's going to be okay."

"I know, I know. I can't imagine."

"I shouldn't have come here," Luke said blatantly. "I should have just went home. I'm sorry, Lorelai. You don't need to hear about this." Luke slowly stood up.

"No, Luke stop. Regardless of everything I'll always be here for you. We were friend's first you know. We've been in each other's lives for what, ten years? You don't just walk away from something like that. You need someone around right now, I can tell." Luke paused, indicating that he was still unsure about the situation so Lorelai took his hand in hers and pulled him back to the couch. Without thinking, she leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek. It was like she hadn't realized she'd done it at all. Luke, for a moment just stared at her and then without hesitation took her head in his hands and kissed her, passionately.

Lorelai pulled back, "Luke.. I..."

"Do you remember when you came to the diner the night Rory told you that she dropped out of Yale?" Lorelai nodded, silently. "And you proposed and I said yes and then I asked you if you were sure?" Tears began to well in her eyes at the thought, but again, she nodded. "And you said to me, _I just want to be happy right now _and I said, _okay._?" She nodded again, repetitively. "Lorelai, I just want to be happy right now. And I'm damn sure you're the only person who can do that."

"We can't just sit here, and kiss and pretend that everything's fine between us. It's not fine, Luke. I love you, but I can't just forget everything that's happened in the last couple of days. I need to know that something's going to change. I don't want to give either of us any false hope if it's just going to end up in the same way. I can't do that to you, and I can't do that to myself." She reasoned.

"I know and I will do any and everything in my power to make a change."

"I just, I just don't know if that's enough. For months you've said something's going to change and nothing has. I can't sit here and let everything lie stagnant anymore. Something has to be done. I can't hurt anymore, Luke. I won't do it."

"Lorelai Gilmore, look at me." She looked up, tears slowly falling from her clear blue eyes. "I swear to you, I will never do anything to hurt you ever again. I'm just asking you for this one, final chance to make everything right with us. I love you, you know I do. You know I'm not the kind of guy to be all sappy and everything, but I really can't live without you, Lorelai. I need you." She made no noise, no indication that she'd even heard what he was saying to her. "Do you believe me?"

"Time will tell, Luke. Only time will tell." The conversation was then left at that. A moment later Lorelai asked, "Do you need to get back to the hospital?"

"I don't want to have to sit there alone."

"I could go with you, if you want. To keep you company. I know how much you love hospitals." She offered.

"That would be nice, thanks."

"Yeah, let me just go and change my clothes."

---

When Luke and Lorelai arrived back at the hospital, it was nearly empty. Luke checked his watch for the umpteenth time that evening, and it read 1:48. He was exhausted, and he could tell by the fact that Lorelai had fallen asleep in his arms, that she was too.

Sometime during the night, Luke must have fallen asleep because the next thing he saw was the fast-paced hustle and bustle of a hospital in the morning.

"Excuse me, Mr. Danes?" It was Dr. Shultz, again. The sound of his voice alerted Luke, and startled Lorelai awake. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you, Mrs. Danes, but I have some news for you." Both Lorelai and Luke either completely overlooked the fact that even a complete stranger could tell that they should be married, or neither of them noticed. "Anna Nardini got through surgery very well, she is currently in serious but mostly stable condition. She's in a coma, but she should be okay. We're hoping for the best. As for April Nardini, we are going to monitor her a little more closely because of her age, and because she sustained the most sever injuries of the two. Several broken bones, a collapsed lung, and some minor internal bleeding. All of which can be and has been almost completely fixed. However, what we're most concerned with is the several contusions of the head. She's sustained a pretty severe concussion. We're watching her closely and we expect her to be fine."

"Wow, okay. So, they're both going to be fine?" Luke asked.

"As of right now, that's where we're at. With head injuries you can never be too sure though, I will make sure to have someone update you every step of the way."

"Thank you so much, doctor." Luke said. Dr. Shultz gave an assuring nod, and walked away.

"So everything's going to be okay? That's fantastic, Luke."

"Yeah, _everything_ is going to be okay." He replied, knowing that in time, both the tangible wounds of Anna and April, and the intangible of the relationship between he and Lorelai.

Fin

**I decided to totally change the ending. **

**In the original I killed of both Anna and April, and that seemed a little too insensitive to me after going back and reading it again. **

**Anyway, I hope you like the new and improved version. R&R 3 **


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